This invention relates generally to the art of pole clamp assemblies and more specifically to clamp assemblies which can be mounted on mobile personal supports, such as wheelchairs and hospital beds, for supporting IV-poles as well as to objects which can be attached to vertical poles, such as IV pumps.
A problem encountered in medical facilities, such as hospitals, nursing homes, and the like, when patients are moved is that the patients are often attached, via intravenous (IV) tubes, to pumps and containers which feed fluids to them. These fluids are of a variety of different kinds, including blood, nutrients, medicines, and the like. Such apparatus, e.g. pumps and containers, can be quite heavy for an individual patient, often weighing as much as 50 pounds. In order to support such apparatus, medical facilities usually use IV-poles extending upwardly from wide bases with castors thereon; thus, the IV-poles can be rolled from one place to another, as required. When patients are moved short distances, these mobile IV-poles are normally rolled with them. However, when the patients are put on litters, or in wheelchairs, for example, and moved moderate to great distances, it is inconvenient and dangerous to roll separate IV-poles therewith and this often requires an undue number of personnel to effectively and safely accomplish it. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a pole clamp assembly with which an IV-pole can be selectively and easily clamped to and unclamped from a mobile patient support so that it can be easily transported with the patient support in a convenient and safe manner by one person.
A related problem is encountered in medical facilities when one attempts to mount a heavy object, such as pumps, containers and the like on IV-poles. That is, it is often difficult for nurses and other medical personnel to hold such items while clamping them to the IV-poles. Thus, it is a further object of this invention to provide a clamping apparatus for attaching such objects to poles.
Clamps for intravenous poles are suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,224 to LeBlanc et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,209 to Kerr and U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,131 to Springer et al. The IV-pole of LeBlanc et al. is a specialized pole for use with the clamp disclosed therein and the clamp would be difficult and time-consuming to employ. The pole of this patent cannot be easily used by itself in the manner of normal mobile IV-poles and it is difficult to use it separately from a patient support such as a bed or a wheelchair. Further, the clamp disclosed therein does not enable one to transport a conventional mobile IV-pole with a mobile patient support. Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an intravenous pole holder which can be easily employed on a mobile patient support to effectively transport a conventional mobile IV-pole with the mobile patient support.
The transport support disclosed in Kerr can be used with separately-supported, mobile, IV-poles, however, it does not appear to be sufficiently secure for many hospital circumstances, employing VELCRO and/or straps to attach a pole to a mobile patient support. It does not appear, for example, that this device can support loaded IV-poles weighing upwards to 50 pounds from the ground; thus, castors of IV-poles would drag along a floor as a mobile patient support is transported, thereby causing drag on the patient support and problems for hospital personnel. For example, if the castors were to get caught on a floor irregularity, the IV-pole might be caused to topple. This could injure the patient directly or by forcibly removing the IV lines from him, cause him injury indirectly when the proper fluids are not fed to him. Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a pole clamp assembly which is sufficiently strong to securely hold a pole weighing upwards of 50 pounds from the ground.
Although the utility clamp of Springer (U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,131) does operate with a conventional IV-pole, it is for use with a specialized wheelchair. It would be difficult, and possibly dangerous, for an operator to use the clamp described therein to attach a conventional IV-pole to a mobile patient support so that the IV-pole is not touching the floor.
There are many prior art clamps which could be used to clamp IV-poles to mobile patient supports. However, most of them suffer from one or more of the following deficiencies:
They do not hold poles in a sufficiently sturdy manner to ensure that IV-poles weighing upwards to 50 pounds are stable and cannot, under all normal circumstances, fall;
it is difficult and time-consuming to mount heavy IV-poles to them so as to provide the required sturdiness;
personnel cannot mount heavy poles to them while using both hands to lift the poles, as is often desirable in hospital settings;
personnel cannot detach heavy poles from them while using both hands to lift the poles as is also often desirable in hospital settings; and,
personnel cannot attach them to, nor detach them from, light poles with one hand, which is often desirable.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a pole clamp assembly which overcomes these deficiencies.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a pole clamp assembly which is inexpensive and uncomplicated to manufacture but yet effective in operation.
Additionally, in hospital settings, it is often necessary to attach pumps and other devices to vertical poles, such as IV-poles. These devices are usually heavy and bulky and it therefore requires the use of both hands to lift and position them onto the poles so that no hand is free for fastening a clamp. It is, therefore, an additional object of this invention to provide a clamping mechanism which can be preloaded to automatically snap shut when such a device is properly positioned on a vertical pole such as an IV-pole.